


Broken Realities

by AnimatorZee



Category: Psychonauts
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-08 23:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimatorZee/pseuds/AnimatorZee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unknown explorer stumbles upon the ruins of Camp Whispering Rock, and is promptly greeted with ominous visions of the past and warnings of the present. There's no way out, the danger is steadily rising, and the only thing to be certain of is that something is terribly wrong. Finding out just what happened to this place might be the only ticket out, but the more he delves into the mystery, the less certain he is that escape is even an option...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Entrance

It was clear that no one had been here for a long time. The signs were damaged from the weather over the decades and were now unreadable. The parking lot beyond the front gate was already significantly overgrown. The buildings and structures scattered around were in a state of disrepair, some barely holding together and others having long since given up and crashed to the ground. Still, the state of abandonment wasn’t what made the place eerie. The air here felt alive and somehow sharp, and somehow new…yet there was no one here.

No one had dared explore this area. There were rumors that anyone who came too close to the abandoned campus returned home, not quite right afterward. Mentally unstable, some insane, others…well, with the others, strange things would happen to them. This was, of course, the reason he came to explore it, and although he was used to the eeriness of abandoned places, something about this place seemed wrong. Part of him felt like he shouldn’t be here, that he should leave. But he didn’t. Perhaps it was curiosity but something he couldn’t quite explain pulled him in, made him want to know  _more_ …

There was a large lodge on the top of the hill, overgrown but in surprisingly good shape. Inside there were still posters on the walls, encouraging reading. There were pamphlets on a few of the tables as well, but they were mostly scattered. A few cooking tools in the kitchen were long rusted, and the television in the next room had its screen smashed in. The furniture in the main area of the lodge was in rough shape, some of it having been smashed. Interestingly enough, there were also several burn marks in many places in the lodge, along the walls and the furniture and the ceiling. A few posters were unlucky enough to take a few hits. Something had definitely happened here, something bad… No wonder this place was a forbidden zone.

As he turned to leave, something in the air pulsed, stopping him. For a split second, he thought he could feel an intense heat at the back of his neck. But when he turned, the lodge was still in its overgrown, burnt, abandoned state. He shrugged it off and continued.

The reception area (as it was called according to an old sign that was still intact) didn’t seem like it had much to offer to begin with. There was a carved out stump, a few log benches, and what appeared to be a small campfire area, all of which nature was taking back. There were a few wooden pillars around the site as well, each with carvings and names in them. One of them was damaged, and the name portion on the top was missing. There was a trailer down the road, still full of half-used cleaning supplies, laundry still hanging on the lines. The area was strangely calm, but still the eeriness hung heavily in the air.

As he took a few more pictures of his findings, he did a double take. For a brief moment, he thought he heard someone sweeping the deck in the trailer. But the same moment he thought he heard it, it seemed to vanish, leaving only the empty, unsettling quiet of the campus. On edge, but not deterred, he moved on.

Down the trail nearby was a small patch of forest, nearby being a large fence surrounding multiple metal domes. The signs surrounding the fenced-in area were still intact, bearing various warnings and demands to stay away. The stiffness and strangeness in the air seemed to spike here in particular, and for a moment he had a pounding headache. He approached the domes, wincing as the pressure in the air seemed to intensify as he closed in. Deciding not to bother it, he turned away and headed back towards the main lodge, trying to brush off the feeling that someone - or some _thing_  - was watching him.

He felt like leaving, but his work here wasn’t quite done yet. There was another spot on his list he hadn’t visited yet that he had been particularly looking forward to: the cabins over the hill. Hesitantly, he made his way there.

The cabins were in roughly the same shape as the main lodge, with the exception being that they were in much worse shape. One of them had collapsed entirely, the treehouse above was probably too dangerous to climb into at this point, and one of the cabins was nothing more than a pile of splintered planks on the ground, with nothing but an old, rotting staircase to show for its previous state.

He approached the only cabin intact, peeking inside. Other than the same overgrowth that had taken the rest of the camp, there wasn’t much of interest inside, aside from several chalkboard panels hanging from the beds, though anything written on them had long since been erased.

Then, everything shifted.

Suddenly, the overgrowth was gone. The cabin was in perfect condition. The names were visible on the chalkboards. There were even a few bags put away below the beds or on the shelves. But just as he would have read the names, the image vanished, leaving the old, decaying cabin in its place.

He blinked, and blinked again, and then rubbed his eyes for good measure. Everything was still decayed like before. Maybe he was just tired and stressed…but enough to start seeing things?

_“…just get him into my lab for some experiments…”_

And hear things, too? He glanced around wildly, but could not find the source of the voice.

_“You’re going to be late!”_

Another one?! He rubbed his head, trying to suppress his panic. He was sure he’d just heard that, but there was no one here…right?

But just when he thought he was wrong, he saw something, out of the corner of his eye. There was a boy nearby, no older than maybe ten or eleven years old. He seemed normal enough, aside perhaps from the aviator cap - complete with goggles - and the fact that he was, overall, ghostly in appearance. The boy didn’t seem to notice him; instead he sat quietly at the base of the stairs of the demolished lodge nearby.

He stepped closer, curious, hoping to get a better look. The world in front of him shifted again, the demolition and age seemed to melt back. It flickered a few times, and then focused, revealing other children running about the campgrounds, happily playing or chatting…but this boy was alone, seemingly content to relax on the front steps of his cabin, watching everyone else.

Before he could make any sense of it, the boy’s head snapped up, staring directly at him with a shocked expression. He yelped, stumbling away from the boy, and the world shifted back to normal.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, he stepped forward again, ignoring a sudden pounding in his head and staring at the spot where the ghostly boy had sat. His mind was tugging itself in different directions. Part of him wanted to run and leave this place behind. The other part of him wanted to stay, to find out more.

Still, the cabins here seemed to unsettle him. He headed back over the hill and across the bridge, back to the main cabin. He could explore the beach, but he felt too unsettled by this place to do so. Something definitely wasn’t right with this place. It was messing with his head, and the damage in some places just seemed…unnatural. Unlike most abandoned areas he’d explored, there was no graffiti here, no sign of other intruders or less-than-respectful explorers. Now he was starting to understand why.

Something drew his attention to the lodge, and he decided to give it one more peek. When he opened the door, he nearly reeled back in shock.

The boy was here again, along with another figure he couldn’t quite figure out. The figure had one hand to his head, and faced his other palm outward towards the boy. A blast of raw red energy shot out from the man’s forehead, and the boy leapt out of the way of it just in time for it to scorch a poster instead. The boy retaliated, leaping into the air and bouncing off of a ghostly orange orb, delivering a swift kick to the man’s chest.

The scene before him shifted like a broken tape, skipping a bit. Suddenly more tables were broken, parts of the lodge were on fire, and the boy was right in the middle of a smashed table, pushing himself to his feet and struggling to breathe. The stranger loomed over him, raised his hand…

…and everything went back to normal.

His head throbbed. He backed away from the lodge until he hit the railing on the path leading up to it. He spun on his heels, fleeing the scene, ignoring the unstable flickering of the world around him and heading straight for the front gate.

To his dismay and horror, it was chained shut.


	2. Curiosity

No matter how much be pulled at the chains or tried to bend the metal bars of the front gate, there was clearly no way through. Whenever he tried to climb over, the bars proved too slippery to get over. He couldn’t crawl under; there was no space. He really was trapped. Cursing, he kicked the gate, shoving his hands into his pockets and glaring at it. There really wasn’t a way out of this, was there? Something wanted him to stay. Why, he couldn’t say, then again considering the state of the place, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Maybe there was an alternate route out of here. After all, there was a beach nearby. Maybe he could cross the lake, go to another town, find his way home from there. His mother would be furious, but at least he’d be safe.

His phone vibrated, startling him. As he pulled it out, he felt a cold sweat coming on. He was too far out of range to be getting any signals; why would someone be calling him?

“…or texting,” he mumbled, staring at the notification on the screen. He unlocked his phone, and then stared, his eyes widening.

**something is wrong**

A flurry of whispers crept past his ears, and he stiffened. There were too many voices to make out anything specific, but it was unsettling enough. After it passed, he slowly turned around, towards the source.

_“Summer’s not over yet…”_

There was a brief flicker of children running excitedly downhill, with two in particular taking their time and walking. Just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. He blinked, rubbing his eyes as though the vision would reappear…but it wouldn’t. He stared at the hill, clamping his teeth together to repress a fearful shudder.

After a moment, something caught his eye. There was movement behind a nearby fallen tree. He backed against the gate holding his breath. A few seconds passed, and a small figure peeked back at him, curious yet nervous. He did a double-take. It was the boy from before.

Neither he nor the boy moved at first. He was too scared to move, almost too scared to breathe. But the more he stared at the boy, the more he noticed - or even felt, somehow - that the boy was just as afraid as he was. Something tugged at his mind, like a memory rising from a dark, forgotten depth, or maybe his conscience was trying to say something. Either way, his apprehension slowly began to make way, as part of himself insisted that this boy was no harm to him.

He went over a few facts. He was trapped with no way out, his phone didn’t have a signal this far out…aside from ghostly text messages, apparently…and even if it did, he could get in huge trouble if anyone caught him here. He was in enough of a mess already; if this boy truly wasn’t any danger to him, he could take that risk…right? Shaking off his fear, he stepped forward. “Hello…?”

The boy eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing.

“…you can hear me, right? Aren’t you that kid from earlier? From back at the cabins?”

There was some hesitation, and the boy nodded.

“Who are you?”

The boy remained silent.

“…okay, nevermind… Can you tell me what’s going on here?”

The boy nodded, waving him over.

“You want me to follow you…? Is it safe? Nothing’s going to hurt me, right?”

The boy nodded again, more eagerly this time.

At first, he wasn’t sure whether or not to follow through, but he didn’t seem to have very many other options, so he stepped forward. The boy smiled approvingly, hopping out of his hiding place and heading up the trail, pausing part-way up to wait for a few moments before continuing.

“You’re not exactly patient about this, are you?” he grumbled, speeding up his pace and running after the ghostly boy. “Hey! Will you slow down!?”

The boy sped down the trail, up toward the lodge, leaping deftly over the scattered debris of the fallen loudspeaker towers. As he finally caught up, the boy made for a tree stump nearby, waving him over just as he jumped in.

He stopped, peering into the hollow tree stump. Uncertainty filled his mind again; this place already scared the living daylights out of him, and now he was trapped inside. For all he knew, this ghost could be leading him to his doom.

And yet…

There was something strangely familiar about that boy. He’d seen him somewhere before, and not that long ago. Something told him he could trust this boy, no matter how ghostly or eerie things seemed. But how? He’d never seen him before…had he?

Carefully, he climbed into the hollow of the tree stump and lowered himself down. There was a drop of several feet below him, but he managed to land without any difficulties. There was no light under here; everything was completely dark.

He stepped forward, one hand on the wall next to him, and made his way down whatever passage was ahead of him. He must have misplaced a step, because not even three steps in he slipped and fell, sliding down a small descent of sorts, away from the light coming from the entry. He yelped in surprise, reaching out desperately for something to grab onto and right himself, but he found nothing. When he finally came to a stop, he shakily pushed himself to his feet, gasping for breath.

He reached into his pocket, fumbling around until he found a small flashlight he had brought in case of an emergency. He flicked it on, shining it on the surrounding tunnel. There were some old metal tracks that had, for the most part, been uprooted and damaged. The tunnel itself seemed to be carved out of stone, but had long since been abandoned. The entire place was also rather damp, and he winced as he realized how covered in mud he must be now. But most importantly, nearby he saw a ladder. He placed his flashlight in his teeth, grabbing hold of the ladder and climbing up.

He found himself climbing out of yet another tree stump, into an enormous, cavernous chamber. However, his flashlight was barely enough to illuminate the place; it was entirely dark. He could make out a walkway and some central platform of sorts, and cautiously made his way toward it…only to slip and fall off the side of the platform.

He slammed into what felt like another platform, but fell from it, continuing to descend until he crashed into what felt like wet sand. His head banged into something hard.

The last thing he heard was a set of light footsteps approaching him, and someone grabbing his arm.


	3. Allies

When he awoke, his head was still throbbing in pain. Something was drawn over his head, making it impossible to see. Whatever that something was, he noted, it smelled old. And kind of dirty. Maybe an old sack of some kind? Wait…he hadn’t been kidnapped, had he?!

He squirmed uncomfortably. Someone had tied him snugly to a chair, judging from how things felt. The ropes around his arms and legs were tight enough to keep him still, but luckily loose enough to not cause any pain. Maybe this wasn’t a kidnapping. Maybe it was an interrogation of some kind.

He  _knew_  coming to this place was a bad idea. This just proved it.

As he struggled to free himself, however, he quickly felt someone hold him still.

“That’s not going to work, young man.”

He froze. Whoever was speaking to him sounded downright intimidating. At least, with  _that_ tone of voice….

“Talk. How did you find this place, and What are you doing here?”

“I’m just doing some urban exploration,” he replied shakily. “I’m not trying to—”

“ _Urban_  exploration? This is a remote facility, well out of the way of any city, let alone even a small town. How did you find it?”

“I…” The more he tried to recall, the fuzzier his mind went. Strange… “I don’t know, actually. I guess I just followed a few rumors and stumbled across it.”

The voice grumbled quietly in disapproval. “You must have extraordinary talent to be stumbling across a place like this.”

“I’m telling you, it was an accident! Now let me go!”

Something grabbed his head, holding him still. “You’re going to have  _another_  accident if you keep squirming like that.”

He froze, shivering. His breath caught in his throat and he was sure there was a cold sweat coming on.

“I’m not threatening you. If you fall out of that chair, you could hurt yourself, and I’d rather keep you intact for now.”

Well, that was a small relief.

“Will you calm down?!” Another voice demanded. This time, it was a girl, probably about his age. “He’s already freaked out enough as it is.”

There was a sigh, and the hand let go of his head. He breathed out a sigh of relief, along with a shaky laugh. “Th-thanks.”

“…don’t mention it…” The girl’s voice replied. “Hey, Sasha, what’d you say those readings looked like again?”

Sasha…? Was that the other person’s name?

“The scans indicated a strong psychoreactive readings, but also a powerful astral defense. Either this boy has powerful mental defenses, or my equipment is jammed.  _Again_.”

“It wasn’t  _my_  fault this time.”

“He also hasn’t been here for very long, but his signature is almost everywhere, and difficult to pick up.”

He blinked. His signature…?

“That’s not right,” the girl said. “He hasn’t been here for all that long. How can his signature be all over the place…?”

“Young man. How long have you been here?”

It took a second before he realized he was being spoken to. “Um…maybe half an hour? Or so?”

“That can’t be possible. Your psychic signature is all over these grounds. You had to have been here for much longer than that.”

“How much longer are we speaking, here?”

“Enough to make it nearly impossible to pick up a newer trail. Unless something else is at work that I’m not aware of.”

The girl cleared her throat. “Sasha, let me take that sack off his head.”

He froze, eyes widening. Was she on his side? Or were they up to some dastardly trick?

“But Lili, we don’t even know who this intruder is, let alone who he might be working for—”

“What are you, stupid?! Doesn’t he at least  _sound_  familiar to you? I know I’d know that voice anywhere.”

Lili…why did that name ring a bell? He was sure he’d never met anyone named Lili in his life, yet he could deny familiarity with the name. Maybe he met her and forgot, because she clearly knew him.

“…very well. But we’re putting it back on the moment he shows any hostility, understand?”

“Fine, whatever.”

There was some shuffling around behind him and the ropes around part of his upper body were loosened. The bag over his head shifted, and someone pulled it off.

He was sitting in a mostly-blank room, with an observatory window and a small door nearby. It reminded him of a sound booth, or one of those rooms in movies where mad scientists performed experiments on live subjects and watched from a window nearby. However, this room looked a little disused and worn down. Nearby stood a tall, thin man garbed in a blazer, a turtleneck sweater and a pair of slacks, all of which seemed dirty and a bit worn. His shoes had seen better days, as did his hair, although oddly enough his sunglasses were in fine shape. His expression seemed hard to read, although he looked entirely focused all the same.

In front of him stood someone completely alien and yet so familiar to him. It was a young girl, wearing a sleeveless sweater and a short skirt, tall socks and fingerless gloves. Like the man, her clothing had clearly seen better days. Her hair was pulled back in pigtails, and slung on her shoulders was some sort of backpack. Her eyes went from narrow to wide when her eyes met his…and then she stared at the ground in disappointment.

“Well, Lili?”

The girl sulked. “Nevermind. It sounded like him, and something sorta felt the same, but…it’s not Raz.”

“Raz?” He asked. “Who’re you talking about?”

“We’ll ask the questions here,” The man said sternly. “We’ve already heard your version of _how_  you showed up here, believable or not. Why don’t you tell us  _what_  you were doing here?”

He shifted. “Well, I’m an urban explorer. Ruins and stuff. I came here on a dare from some friends. They know I specialize in places that’re supposedly haunted or whatever, so they knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. This place is a lot more haunted than I thought, though…”

“Haunted?” The man echoed. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there were these…ghostly images from the past. Or something like that. One of them saw me and led me to a tunnel earlier. That, and I swear I keep hearing things, and it’s like there’s someone watching me. I dunno. There’re rumors that this place makes you go crazy. Maybe it’s happening to me, too…”

“You’re not crazy,” The girl replied, crossing her arms. “Just psychic, perhaps.”

He blinked. “…me? Psychic? No way, you’ve gotta have something wrong here—”

“Lili’s right,” The man said. “You may have some form of mediumship or retrocognition. Or, if my theory is correct, some other, more powerful ability.”

“I thought your theory had something to do with the world breaking down or something like that,” Lili said, crossing her arms.

“That’s still true. But we didn’t see any of those visions. This boy, however,  _did_. He may be able to help us fix whatever’s wrong here.”

“Hang on, hang on!” He cried. “World breaking down? Psychic powers? Are you guys nuts?! What’re you  _doing_  here, anyway?”

“We’ve only been here for about a day or two,” Lili replied. “…I think.”

“So you found this place, too? Are you urban explorers or…”

“No,” Sasha said. “We’re not.”

“Then what  _are_  you up to, anyway? The rumors said this place has been abandoned for years. No one’s been here since then.”

Sasha and Lili exchanged worried glances. After a moment, they nodded, and they both looked back at him. “Young man,” Sasha began, “This place has only come to this state about a day or two ago. Before then it was a perfectly functional facility.”

He blinked. “Wait, what…?”

“It’s true. The state you’ve seen this place in only happened very recently.”

“But that’s impossible!” He cried. “There’s overgrowth and destruction and everything! How else do you explain what happened here?”

Lili frowned thoughtfully. “My bo…my friend, Razputin, he was fighting someone that had invaded the camp grounds and then everything just sort of happened at once. Suddenly this place looked like a ghost town, and just like that, we were alone. I only managed to find Sasha after a long time. I think whatever happened must’ve scattered us or something.”

“But that doesn’t explain why many of us have completely gone missing,” Sasha replied, “Nor does it comply with our friend’s claim that this place has supposedly been abandoned for much longer than a few days. Something else must be at work here.”

“I’m starting to see how that theory makes sense,” Lili commented. She turned to him. “Hey, if we untie you, do you promise to help us out?”

He paused. “…me? What could I do to help?”

“You seem to have some form of extrasensory perception that could be useful,” Sasha stated. “It may shed some light on our predicament or even help us fix things.”

Something about this all seemed off. He wasn’t sure if helping these strangers was a good idea, and yet…something compelled him to. They both seemed incredibly familiar to him. He was going to be in trouble when he headed home, either with his parents or with the authorities; at the very least he could do something that someone wouldn’t scold him for.

“Alright…I’ll help. I promise. But could you tell me who you guys are?” A bit of a redundant question, considering he knew their names already, but he wanted something a bit more thorough.

“Agent Sasha Nein,” The tall man said. “An elite-ranking psychonaut and one of the instructors here at Whispering Rock. My friend here is Lili Zanotto, one of our top psi-cadets.”

Lili grinned, either proudly or smugly; it was hard to tell. “What about you?” She said, loosening the ropes and allowing him free. “What’s your name?”

He offered a thankful grin and nodded.

“I’m D’artagnan. But my friends call me Dart.”

“Nice to meet you, Dart. Now, let’s get down to business.”


	4. Clues

Lili and Sasha wasted no time in hearing what Dart had experienced earlier. Dart retold his exploration, including the parts about the ghosts he’d seen, the flickering reality around him, and the eerie feeling of being watched. Oddly, he found himself carefully leaving out anything involving the ghost of the boy with the aviator hat. Something told him that he needed to remain quiet about that, and that these two weren’t meant to know about him. At least, not yet…

After he was done, Lili and Sasha began explaining a few basic things. The facility he was in was formerly a government training facility for young psychics, doubling as a summer camp. He learned a few new words of psychic vocabulary, namely Psychonauts: elite international psychic secret agents, of which Sasha Nein was a well-respected one and Lili was one in training.

As it turned out, Dart’s new allies weren’t as suspicious as they seemed. Although clearly they weren’t too happy about the events transpiring, they seemed all too happy to have Dart on board with them, even if he was a stranger who seemed a little crazy. Sasha Nein was doing a great job remaining calm and collected about this whole mess, stating facts cleanly without exaggerating, nor sugar-coating them. Lili, on the other hand, wasn’t about to hide her annoyance with things, but was intelligent in her own right. The two worked rather well as a team, although it felt like there were a few members missing among them, like they were meant to be a larger group.

“There used to be six of us,” Lili replied. “But the others’re missing. It’s just me and Sasha right now.”

“Where are the others?”

“Milla probably went to hide in her own lab, but we haven’t checked there yet so we can’t say for sure. Normally Cruller’s here in the sanctuary when something important’s going on, but we can’t find any trace of him. Coach Oleander usually hangs out at the treehouse, but when we went to look, that place was so messed up that there was no way he could still be up there. He’s probably hiding somewhere else with Milla. And Raz…” Lili shifted nervously. “We can’t find him anywhere, either.”

“So we have two of us here,” Sasha began, “Two of us possibly in hiding nearby, and two that seem to have vanished altogether. What worries me is that the two of us missing are probably the best among us to handle something like this.”

“Really?” Lili replied, doubtful. “I thought you and Milla were top agents.”

“Cruller wasn’t the leader of the Psychonauts for nothing,” Sasha stated. “As for Razputin, I suspect that the person he was fighting right before this happened might have had a hand in all this. Razputin mentioned having stumbled upon a valuable lead right before we were attacked. That boy knows our culprit much better than we do; he would have the information we need to get through this mess.”

Dart chewed his lip for a moment. Two allies working together, two in hiding somewhere, two having vanished without any trace. “How much looking around did you guys do?”

“About the same that you did,” Sasha said. “The only difference is that you seemed to have visions of the past, whereas we found nothing.”

“That’s something I don’t get,” Dart grumbled, slumping rather gracelessly to the floor. “I’ve never been able to do that before. Home come I could only do that now?”

Sasha shook his head. “It’s possible that the psitanium could be awakening your latent abilities, but I doubt that that’s possible. The psitanium has gone dark, as you’ve already seen. There’s no way it could have affected you.”

“A bunch of other stuff is broken, too,” Lili pointed out. “Like the brain tumbler. We tried turning it on, but nothing happens.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me… Everything in that lab seems to be damaged beyond repair. The brain tumbler is the only thing in even remote working shape, and it simply refuses to function. At any rate…” He tugged at his jacket. “It’s also possible that your abilities were awakened via stress.”

“Stress?”

“Yes. It’s not uncommon for psychic powers to become active when one is in mental or emotional turmoil.”

“You were so scared that you started seeing ghosts?” Lili jabbed. “Wow.”

Dart twitched in annoyance. “Hey!” He protested. “I wasn’t scared!”

“You totally were.”

Sasha cleared his throat. “At any rate, we’re not getting anything done by staying down here. We need to find the others, if they’re still here. If we’re lucky, perhaps we can find out what happened to Razputin and Agent Cruller.”

“We still haven’t tried Milla’s lab,” Lili said. “It’s under the lake; you have to use the bathysphere to get to it.”

Dart flinched. “Under the lake…?”

“What’s wrong?” Sasha asked.

“I, uh…” He fumbled with the sleeves of his coat.

“Well? Out with it.”

“…I can’t swim.”

Lili rolled her eyes. “We’re not going to swim to get there, stupid; you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, I know, but—”

“Raz couldn’t swim either, and he’s used the bathysphere at least twice now. You’re just being a wimp.”

“Hey!” Dart protested, immediately rising to his feet. “I’m not a wimp! I just don’t like water, that’s all!”

“At any rate, we should head to Milla’s laboratory to see if anyone else is here. If that fails, the only other place left is the treehouse.”

“You mean the one over by the kid’s cabins?” Dart said. “That thing’s a wreck. I’m surprised it’s still standing.”

Sasha’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh really? Hmm…this changes things….”

“Looks like Milla’s lab is the only option we’ve got,” Lili said. “If no one’s down there, then…”

The silence spoke for itself. Without a word, the group headed for the exit of the cave, entering the underground transit tunnels and crawling through the darkness. Sasha took the lead with Dart’s flashlight, while Lili and Dart followed closely behind him. After an unsettling (but thankfully uneventful) trip, they emerged from a tree stump near the beach.

The beach was more or less the same as the rest of the camp: disused and decaying.The boathouse was still intact but falling apart, and the boardwalks were rotted and covered in algae. The platform farther in the lake was in pieces, but still close enough together to remind of its previous state. There were still floaties surrounding the beach to keep any unwary canoers from leaving the vicinity of the camp. The lake itself was thick and murky, and seemed too thick to be made of water.

“So, where’s the Bathysphere?” Dart asked.

Lili’s face twisted into a mixture of disappointment and anxiety. “Good question.”

“That’s odd,” Sasha remarked. “Normally it’s at the end of the main boardwalk. But there’s nothing there.”

“Milla probably took it to her lab, right?” Lili asked. “Why else would it be missing? Unless someone drove it into lungfish territory again.”

Dart blinked. “Again?”

“Long story, we’ll explain later.”

Sasha shook his head. “I’m not so sure about this. If Milla took the bathysphere to her lab, she would have left us some sort of sign pointing to her location. I wouldn’t put it past her to cover up her tracks, considering the situation, but…” He frowned. “She could have at least contacted me via the astral plane. But she hasn’t.”

“Have you tried to contact her yourself?” Dart asked.

“Multiple times. We can’t seem to contact anyone via astral projection.” 

“We tried everything,” Lili said. “Meditation, brain tumbler, even Sasha’s psycho-portal. Meditation got us nowhere, the brain tumbler didn’t even react, and the psycho-portal was about as useful as a block of wood with hinges on it. Nothing’s working. It’s like our minds are locked in place or something.”

“So, your psychic powers are being blocked?”

“No. Just astral projection. Everything else seems to work fine.”

“We can’t know for certain what’s blocking it,” Sasha said. “The only hope for now is to go by what we know, and hope that we can find the others and get some clues from them.”

“What DO we know so far?” Dart asked.

Lili scrunched up her face in thought, counting off on her fingers. “Well, we can’t use astral projection no matter how hard we try, time is all messed up, the psitanium’s gone dark, and Dart’s psychic signature is drowning out everything, even though he’s never been here before. Any ideas, Sasha?”

“Whatever happened during that fight must be the cause of this. We need to find Razputin. Until then, we should look for any other survivors, or any other clues that may be around.”

Dart frowned. “Why don’t you just use your equipment to pick up their psychic signature? Like how you saw mine?”

“You think we haven’t tried that yet?” Lili groaned. “ _Your_  signature is so strong it’s blocking out everything else. Which is weird, since you’ve never been here long enough to leave a signal like that.”

“Sasha…?”

Everyone froze stiff. A quiet, wary voice had drifted towards them from the bushes nearby. Sasha immediately stepped forward, but made no strong movement towards the source of the voice. “Who’s there?”

“Darling, it’s me.”

Dart didn’t need to be able to see past Sasha’s sunglasses to notice how wide his eyes went. Out from the bushes stumbled a tall, slim young lady with dark hair and olive skin. Her dress, once colorful and vibrant, was covered with dirt and tears. She looked more as though she’d stumbled through a thicket of thorns than anything, and looked weary to match. However, the sight of Sasha Nein seemed to calm her. She immediately rushed over to Sasha and threw her arms around him, eyes squeezed shut. “Oh, Sasha, thank heavens you’re alright!”

“Milla?” Lili gawked. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”

Dart blinked. So this was Milla? Sasha looked exceptionally relieved to see her, understandably so. Dart himself couldn’t help but let out a sigh he didn’t know he’d been holding back. Finally, another survivor of whatever had happened here.

Sasha placed his hands calmly on Milla’s shoulders. “I’m glad to see you too, Agent Vodello, but I’m afraid this isn’t the time for formalities…”

“Yes, darling, I know. Something’s happened to this camp. I can’t get to my lab anymore, and everything’s been destroyed. I tried to contact you, but for some reason I can’t reach the astral plane.”

“We haven’t been able to either,” Sasha replied. “Nothing’s worked, not even my psycho-portal. Something has trapped our minds, but I don’t know what it is yet. The psitanium has gone dark, as well.”

“What?!” Milla said, shocked. “Does Agent Cruller know?”

“We haven’t been able to find him, or anyone else. Before I found you, it was just me and Lili.”

Milla glanced at Lili, opening her mouth to speak but pausing when she glanced at Dart. “…darling, who is this other boy?”

Sasha said nothing, but gestured quietly for Dart to speak up instead. Dart glanced at Lili, who pushed him forward a bit abruptly. “This is Dart. He showed up a little while ago and made Sasha’s tracking equipment go haywire.”

Dart smiled brightly, albeit somewhat awkwardly. “Nice to meet you.”

Milla worriedly glanced at Dart, and then back to Sasha. “Darling, it’s not save for the children here. We should take them back to the sanctuary as soon as we can.”

“Not safe?” Sasha echoed. “What do you mean?”

“I think something’s following us. I ran into Mory earlier, and—”

“You saw Coach Oleander?!” Lili blurted. “Where is he? Why isn’t he with you  _now_?!”

“I…” Milla hesitated. “I was looking for you two near Sasha’s lab, and Mory came stumbling out of the woods. He was trying to warn me about something.”

“What did he say?” Sasha asked, his tone suddenly completely firm.

“I couldn’t make it out clearly. He mentioned something about some graffiti that he saw at his treehouse, and at the main cabin. Some kind of warning.”

“What kind of warning?”

“I don’t know. Right when he began to explain to me, he disappeared.”

Dart felt his thought process screeching to a halt. “Disappeared?” He echoed.

Milla nodded. “I don’t know what happened. One moment he was talking to me, the next, something had snatched him away and that was the last I saw or heard from him. He’s gone.”

“So now we have  _three_  people missing,” Lili said, eyes narrowing in thought. “I don’t like where this is headed.”

“Think we should check out that graffiti that the guy mentioned?” Dart said. “Maybe we’ll find a clue or something.”

“I already did,” Milla replied. “It was hard to read, but it was  _definitely_  some kind of warning. It looked like whoever wrote it was in quite a hurry.”

“What did it say?” Sasha asked.

“Not much. It was frantic, telling us to find a way out while we could. One line in particular said that this whole place is—”

Milla didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. In a blur of movement, the water shot forward, grabbing her in a claw-like grip. One loud scream and a vain struggle later, it dragged her beneath the surface of the lake, hardly even leaving a ripple.

Sasha shouted something angrily, rushing for the water’s edge but halting just as he reached it. Lili’s eyes were wide open and her hands were clamped over her mouth. Dart’s jaw had dropped, and he could have sworn his heart stopped in shock.

Whatever Milla was about to tell them, they’d never hear it now. She was gone.


	5. Warnings

The group stood in silence at the beach for a solid three minutes. Sasha was hard to read as usual, but it was clear that he was quite angry. Dart was shocked and terrified, and Lili…well, Lili was downright stunned. She had barely blinked the whole time they stood there.

After some time, Sasha turned and began walking up the path, one of his hands clenched in a fist and his lips pressed into a firm line. Lili and Dart quietly followed.

“…I’m sorry,” Dart mumbled, hanging his head.

“This isn’t your fault,” Sasha replied. “Milla has been through tighter spots before. She’ll be fine.”

Something about Sasha’s tone of voice made Dart doubt him heavily.

“But right now she’s gone,” Lili said quietly, “And so’s Coach. Unless Ford and Raz got taken, too, it’s just us three now.”

“And with no way to cross the Astral Plane, we can’t call for help.” Sasha frowned. “We may very well be on our own.”

“Whoever caused this sure doesn’t want us to know what’s going on,” Dart commented. “Milla didn’t get to finish telling us what she read before she disappeared.”

“And the same with Coach Oleander,” Lili added. “We’re trapped in a deserted psychic summer camp, time’s being all screwy, and no one wants us to know what’s going on. How does any of this make any sense? What’s our warden trying to accomplish with all this, anyway? Come on, Sasha, don’t you have  _any_  ideas?”

Sasha stopped walking, and remained quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone was eerily stern. “I’m beginning to notice,” He said, “That this is all coming back to our new friend.”

“Dart?” Lili said. “What’s he got to do with this?”

“For starters, he showed up merely a day or two after this mess happened. Then he claims that this place has been abandoned for  _years_ , even though things have only been this way for a day or two. Either something is wrong with time itself, or he’s hiding something from us.”

Dart shifted uneasily and looked away, but he could still feel Sasha staring at him in suspicion, perhaps even anger.

“He claims to have never been here before, yet his psychic signature is everywhere. He managed to enter the campus, when none of us have been able to find a way in  _or_  out. But perhaps most intriguing is the fact that reading his mind is downright impossible.” Sasha’s expression stiffened into angry suspicion. “It’s almost as though there’s nothing there for me to read in the first place.”

Lili rolled her eyes. “Sasha, Dart isn’t brainless. If he was, he’d be staggering around talking about TV and hackeysack. Besides, you need a brain to use psychic powers last time I checked, and he’s got retro-cognition. You said so yourself.”

“Then why is it whenever either of us tried to peer into his mind, we went right through him?”

“How should I know?  _I’m_  not the expert,  _you_  are.” Lili crossed his arms. “Besides, you said he had really strong mental defenses. Maybe you just can’t get in?”

Sasha shook his head. “That’s impossible. Evasion like that shouldn’t even be possible in someone so young or inexperienced. No matter how we look at this, there’s no denying that D’artagnan is directly related to this incident somehow.”

“But I don’t get it!” Dart protested. “I’ve never been here before! I don’t even know any of you!”

“Do you even remember how you got in?” Sasha asked firmly. “Surely you could have left the same way you entered. How did you find this place? Who told you where to find it?”

Dart opened his mouth to answer, only to find that he couldn’t  remember anything. Not the path he took, not the person who told him where this place was, not even how exactly he managed to get in. He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“You were wandering around not that long ago. How could you forget something so quickly?”

“I don’t know!”

“The only way we’re going to know  _anything_  for sure is if we get hard evidence,” Lili said loudly, cutting off Sasha before he could speak again. “We need to find that graffiti that Milla was talking about. Didn’t she say it was on the main cabins or something?”

“And the treehouse,” Dart added. “But it’s not safe to go up there. The whole thing’s falling apart.”

“No doubt intentional,” Sasha grumbled. “We’ll have to check the main cabin.”

Dart quirked an eyebrow, doubful. “But I didn’t see any graffiti there on my way in. The whole cabin was a wreck.”

“It’s still worth a shot,” Lili replied. “Maybe someone’s been sneaking around and they put it up after you saw it.”

With that, the group headed straight up the hill and said little more on the subject, much to Dart’s relief. As it turned out, there  _was_  graffiti in the main lodge. Unfortunately, it was mostly covered up by the time they got there; several burn marks replaced it, leaving only bits of orange paint.

Dart shivered. The feeling of being watched came upon him again, and for a moment he swore he could hear flames devouring the cabin. A few shakes of the head later they were gone, but it did little to ease his nerves.

“Nothing,” Lili grumbled. “Whoever’s keeping us here really  _doesn’t_  want us to know what’s going on.”

“Or they’re trying to keep us from finding the way out,” Sasha added.

Dart was about to add his own thoughts when a familiar feeling of anxiety brushed upon him. He shuddered, glancing about and ignoring Lili’s comments on his behavior. When he looked back at the graffiti, he found that they weren’t alone.

The boy from before had appeared once again, his goggles resting atop his head. He only glanced at dart momentarily before he picked up a nearby brush. Oddly, there was no paint, but he wasn’t about to question it.

“It’s you again,” Dart whispered. The boy nodded eagerly.

“Do you see something, Dart?” Sasha asked.

Dart nodded, calmly and quickly describing the boy in front of him. When he was done, Sasha and Lili exchanged curious glances.

“You’re seeing an image of Razputin?” Sasha said. “But that sounds like him from at least two or three years ago, not the one we know now.”

“How can you tell?” Dart asked.

“Well, that sweater’s too small for him now. He wears the one from his uniform instead.”

“That sounds risky,” Lili commented.

Sasha shrugged. “His jacket covers up the badge. There’s never been a problem.”

“Hang on,” Dart said. “He’s…he’s writing something.”

“What’s it say?” Lili asked.

Dart waited, carefully wording what was written as the boy scrawled it out. He began slowly, but his words became more frantic and he began painting more and more quickly.

**_ITS NOT SAFE_ **

**_GET OUT_ **

**_NO EXIT THAT WAY_ **

**_HELP ME_ **

**_RUN_ **

**_HELP ME HELP ME HELP_ **

Just as Razputin finished painting the message, he dropped the brush, gazed around wildly in panic, and vanished.

A chill swept through the room as Dart finished explaining what he had just read, and no one dared to move. Dart stepped away from the wall warily, and right on cue, his phone rang.

“You brought a phone with you?” Lili asked incredulously.

“It’s not supposed to get a signal,” Dart stated, pulling it out and opening the text message sent to him.

**_STOP USING YOUR EYES_ **

“What the…”

“Look!”

More graffiti appeared on the wall.

**_ITS ALL A TRAP_ **

**_YOURE ALREADY HERE_ **

Sasha had stopped dead in his tracks. As usual, it was difficult to see past his glasses, but that expression of dawning realization and shock was completely unmistakable  Had Dart not known any better, he’d say he’d seen it somewhere before.

“Of course,” Sasha said. “How could I have been so blind? The answer’s been right in front of us this whole time…”

Lili blinked. “Sasha?” What’re you talking about?!

“Don’t you see yet? We’ve been thinking about this wrong the entire time, Lili! None of this is what it seems!”

“What do you mean, ‘this entire scenario’?” Lili asked. “Sasha, what’s going on?!”

“There’s no time! You two need to find Razputin!”

“But we don’t know where he is!” Dart protested.

“He’s—?!”

As Sasha began to talk, a gaping hole opened in the wall nearby, and an enormous, firey-orange hand reached out of it. Agent Nein spun on a dime, barely escaping its grasp, and shot it with a bright blue bolt of psychic energy. There was a shriek and the hand retracted briefly before shooting forward again, this time hitting its mark.

Lili screamed, letting loose a flurry of deep violet psi-bullets at the hand. But it was no use; nothing affected it. Sasha grabbed the side of the hole, halting the hand once more, but it was clear there was no way he was going to escape. Instead, he sent a frantic glance toward Dart.

“Find Razputin!” Sasha cried. “He’s here somewhere! There has to be a place we haven’t looked yet!  _GO!”_

“Agent Nein!”

But it was too late. Sasha’s grip gave way, and he vanished into the abyssal gap. Satisfied with its catch, the hole loudly snapped shut, leaving the two terrified children alone in the abandoned cabin.


	6. Forgotten

The camp was feeling less and less safe by the moment. Even the sanctuary was feeling like a trap. After all he’d witnessed, Dart could only discern that whatever was hunting them, it could take them at any moment, at any place; all they had to do was take one wrong step.

Nonetheless, they ended up heading for the reception area almost immediately after Sasha’s disappearance to begin carrying out the last order given to them: find Razputin. Judging from how desperate Sasha sounded, finding Raz would be the key to solving and perhaps ending this madness. The question was, just where was he?

“I don’t get it,” Lili grumbled. “We’ve looked  _everywhere_. If Raz really is here, we would have found him by now. Where haven’t we checked?”

“Don’t ask me,” Dart relied. “I don’t know this place nearly as well as you.”

Lili’s eyes narrowed and she glared at one of the nearby posts surrounding the campfire as though it were the cause of all her problem. “There has to be somewhere we haven’t checked. Something we’ve overlooked. Think, Dart. Is there anywhere here you skipped over when you were looking around earlier?”

“I just told you—”

“Just think about it! There’s got to be at least one place we haven’t been!”

“But we’ve been everywhere already!” Dart protested wildly. “Between the two of us, we’ve already been to every part of camp, even the sanctuary and Sasha’s Lab.” He slumped onto one of the log seats. “How’re we supposed to find someone if they’re not here in the first place?”

“Raz IS here. We just need to keep looking.” Lili sounded completely sure of herself, but something told Dart that she was nervous.  _Very_  nervous. “Besides, I doubt he would have left. None of us have been able to find a way out. And if he DID find a way out, he would’ve come back with help.”

Dart sighed. “But even when we do find him,” he began, “How’re  _we_  going to get out?”

Lili paused, at first looking ready to protest again, but her shoulders drooped. “Yeah…good point. My Dad’s probably worried sick about me by now.”

“At least when we get out of this he’ll be happy to see you again,” Dart said.

“Yeah. I’ll probably be grounded again or something though.” Lili sat down next to Dart. “What about  _your_  family? Aren’t they going to be worried about you?”

“I…” Dart blinked. He tried to form the right words, piece together a proper sentence, but somehow everything slipped away from him that moment. It took him a moment to realize what was going on. “…I don’t remember.”

Lili stared at him in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. How do you forget something like your own family?”

“That’s what I wanna know. I remember thinking my mom was going to be mad at me if I didn’t leave soon, but now I don’t remember anything about her. What she looks like, how she acts… I don’t even remember what my own room looks like anymore, let alone my house, or even the town I live in. It’s like…I just keep forgetting things for some reason.” Dart stared at his hands. “Psitanium doesn’t mess around with people’s memories, does it?”

“Not that I know of,” Lili replied, “But the psitanium’s gone dark. It can’t affect anyone right now.”

Dart shifted uneasily. “You know, I couldn’t even remember my own name until you asked me what it was.”

“ _What_?!”

“Yeah. It’s weird, but—”

“How can you forget your own  _name_?!” Lili gawked. “Are you sure you’re not crazy?”

“I don’t know!” Dart replied. “All I know for sure is that I decided to check this place out for some reason, then I got caught up in this mess, and… Well, then I started seeing ghosts and stuff and that’s about it. I know this sounds crazy, but I’m starting to wonder if Sasha’s right. What if I don’t actually have a brain?”

“That’s just stupid, Dart. If you didn’t have a brain, you’d be—”

“—walking around talking about TV and hackeysack, I know. You said that earlier.”

“And you’re not. So you’ve definitely got a brain.”

“Then why don’t I feel like I have one?”

“Because you’re thinking too hard.”

Dart tried to protest, but found it difficult to argue with Lili’s point. Maybe he was just stressed about this. Then again, something still didn’t feel right…

“Let’s just find Raz, okay? I’m pretty sure whatever’s going on will start to clear up once we meet back up.” Lili reached for her satchel, fumbling around in it for a moment. “Now that I think about it, there MIGHT be a few more places we haven’t been yet.”

The mention of this managed to lift Dart’s spirits, if only a little, and he sat up. “Really?”

“Yeah. We just need to refine our search a bit more. If Raz really is still here, he’s most likely hiding, like Milla was.” Lili pulled a map out of her bag, unfolding it and laying it on the ground in front of them. “So, maybe we should try looking for some hiding spots.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there’s this cave down by the beach that connects to the woods,” she began, pointing at a small pen mark on the map. “Then there’s this small area behind the swamp that Raz found once, not that far from here. We could try checking the tree house over by the kid’s cabins, but that’s probably a death trap, so maybe we should try that one last. There was a shack over in the woods, but that thing’s in pieces, so he can’t be hiding in there. Other than that, I think we’ve been pretty much everywhere.”

“Hang on,” Dart said. “What about those big metal domes in the woods?”

Lili blinked. “Metal domes… You mean the GPC?”

“Yeah, those! We haven’t been near those yet. D’you think Raz is in there?”

“I doubt it,” Lili replied. “The only thing in it is the entrance to Sasha’s Lab.”

“Look, you said so yourself. We need to try any place we haven’t checked. Have you been to the GPC since the incident or not?”

Lili looked ready to retort at Dart’s statement, but took a moment to think on it. “…no, actually. We haven’t been in the actual GPC, just underneath it.” She paused, mulling the thought over in her head, then nodded in approval. “Actually, that makes sense. The GPC is probably the smartest hiding place to be in right now.”

“Really?” Dart asked. “How come?”

“Nothing gets out OR in the GPC,” Lili explained. “It represses psychic powers as long as you’re in there. On the plus side, whatever’s hunting us probably can’t get into the GPC.”

“Which means anyone that hasn’t been kidnapped yet will probably be hiding in there!” Dart agreed, excited. “If we go there, we’re bound to find someone!”

“There’s just one more thing that’s bothering me,” Lili began. “The graffiti. Was Raz really the one that wrote it?”

Dart nodded. “Yeah. He seemed like he was in a hurry, too, like something was chasing him down.”

“It was DEFINITELY some kind of warning,” Lili added. “But what do you think he meant by saying we’re ‘already here’?”

“I have no idea. Sasha knew what was going on, though, remember? He was talking about how the answer was right in front of us, and that nothing was what it seemed.”

“He also said that this was some sort of trap…” Lili paused, staring at the ground in thought. After a second or two, her eyes widened. “Wait…do you think he meant—”

Before Lili could finish her thought, the ground began to tremble. A dull roar erupted from the earth, and the sky began to fade from its dull, lifeless tones into a pure black. The campfire suddenly ignited, and from it, an enormous hand reached out. Lili dove to the side just before it would have grabbed her, and the hand ignited the bushes instead.

“Let’s get out of here!” Lili cried. “Follow me!”

Dart had neither time nor reason to protest, and ran after Lili down the path. He glanced behind him, and almost immediately wished he hadn’t. The world was crumbling into a tidal wave of fury, coming after them at full-speed and leaving them nowhere to run. Trees, dirt pathways, signposts, hollowed tree stumps and stone were ground into an impossible sea that crashed down upon them; and every wave that narrowly missed revealed a pulsing, empty abyss behind them. Whispering Rock was crumbling into nothing, and if they didn’t hurry, they’d be caught in the destruction.

“The GPC is just ahead! We just have to get inside!”

Sure enough, Dart could see a trio of metal domes waiting for them up ahead. His headache rapidly returned, but he ignored it; he could nurse his migraine once they were safe. As he scurried up the metal ramp toward it, Lili was already working on opening it. She had one hand on the side of her head, and one raised in front of her. With a swift, swiping motion, an enormous, violet hand appeared from thin air and slammed into the door of the chamber with a loud  _bang_ , causing it to open partway.

Lili began to pull the bottom of the door open, and Dart rushed to help her. Peering over his shoulder as he did, he saw the world vanishing closer and closer to them, closing in more rapidly than before. The fear fueled his adrenalin, and with a burst of strength, he managed to force open the door.

Dart immediately looked inside, hoping to see Razputin waiting inside among the green, cushioned chamber. But to his and Lili’s horror alike, the chamber was empty. Had they opened the wrong one? Was Razputin not here after all?!

“He’s not here?!”

“WHO CARES?!” Lili cried. “Get in! Quick!”

Without a second thought, Dart dove into the chamber just as the world swallowed away the ramp. Hastily, Lili grabbed the chamber door and slammed it shut. All at once, everything went silent, and dark.


	7. Approach

“Is he going to be alright?” Milla asked.

Cruller shrugged. “Well, let’s hope so. If we’re lucky, the psitanium will work its magic and he’ll come to in no time.”

“And if we’re not lucky?” Sasha asked.

“If we’re  _not_  lucky, then we’ll have one less field agent, for lack of a better way to put it.”

Lili remained expressionless, but was more worried than the rest of them. She knew the implications that Cruller was getting at. After all, she’d witnessed the entire debacle. She was even the person who spotted him in the first place and sent for help.

They’d found him lying in the forest outside the GPC. He was still very much alive, but seemed very weak, and had passed out long before he arrived. Milla had sensed something terribly wrong with his mind; apparently he had been fighting it all the way to Sasha Nein’s doorstep. They’d wasted no time in taking him down to the sanctuary, hoping that Ford Cruller could help. Fortunately for them, the former psychomaster knew exactly what to do.

But all of this had transpired quite a while ago. Lili couldn’t stand sitting there, waiting for things to run their course. She had a feeling that whatever was wrong with him was more severe than the others believed. Intervention was needed, and if no one else was going to volunteer, then she’d just have to step up to the plate herself.

“Hey, Milla. Give me your Psycho Portal.”

Every conscious head in the room whipped around to stare at Lili in shock. “Are you outta your mind, Lili?!” Cruller said. “You can’t go into his mind right now! He’s not in shape to be—”

“ _My_  mind is in perfectly good shape, in case you haven’t noticed!” Lili barked. “It’s  _his_  mind that I’m worried about! Maybe if you let me in there, I can find out why he’s taking so long to wake up!”

Agent Nein shook his head. “It’s too dangerous, Lili. There’s a chance you could be trapped in there with no way out. Even if he  _does_  recover, you might not be so lucky.”

“But there  _is_  a chance that it could help, right?” Lili said. “Besides, if he doesn’t get up, look what we’re losing! We  _need_  him. Otherwise, we’re all as good as done for. You all know that.”

The agents all exchanged glances. Normally, Lili would have grinned in smug triumph, but now was not the time for such satisfaction, nor was it really the place to be winning such victories over her mentors. This was a matter of life or death.

“Raz helped us all out before,” Lili continued. “It’s our turn to help him.”

After a moment of uneasy silence, Cruller sighed and nodded toward Milla. “Agent Vodello, you heard the girl. Lend her that portal.”

Milla nodded, handing Lili the small, door-like device. “Please be careful, Lili.”

Noting her teacher’s anxiety, Lili offered her usual knowing grin. “Relax, Milla. If there’s anything I’m going to be, especially around my boyfriend of all people, it’s careful.”

 

* * *

 

The room was dark and cramped. Dart couldn’t see a thing, although he could feel something under him. He had dove into the chamber head-first, not caring what he landed on, as long as he made it in before he was swallowed up with the rest of the abandoned camp.

“Will you get off already?!”

Although next time he should try aiming for something other than Lili.

“Sorry!”

Dart rolled to the side, hearing Lili grunt in both annoyance and relief next to him. Whatever irritation she had felt for being used as a landing pad seemed to evaporate rather quickly, and she didn’t blame him. “You okay?” She asked.

“Mostly,” Dart replied. “What  _was_  that? The whole world was just falling apart and—”

“—and coming after us, I know. If we open that door, I doubt we’ll find anything. We’re as good as trapped here. Unless…”

Dart blinked, and although he couldn’t really see anything, he couldn’t help but tilt his head. “Unless what?”

“Maybe Sasha’s lab survived. We can get down there and see if we can find anything.”

“How?”

“There’s a door in here.”

“Really? Where?”

“You’re sitting on it.”

“Oh.”

Dart shuffled over to the side until he felt himself press up against a wall. There was some movement from Lili’s side of the room, followed by an audible click. A previously hidden door opened up, allowing a soft blue light to shine through.

The two children peered through the door, hoping to see a stairwell leading down into a laboratory. To their surprise, there was no laboratory waiting for them, nor was the GPC chamber the padded cell they thought it was, at least not anymore. Instead, there was an enormous, lightless abyss, filled with thick, sickly clouds moving through the void like molasses. A stairway of pale, crumbling stones stretched downward, in an endless spiral. It was hard to see what was at their end, or even if they DID end.

“So,” Dart began, “Is this what the stairwell down to Sasha’s Lab looks like?”

Lili shook her head, suddenly seeming quite nervous. “No. This is definitely  _not_  the stairwell to Sasha’s Lab.”

Dart tested one of the stairs. As crumbly and unstable as it seemed, it was surprisingly sturdy. “It’s worth checking out at least, right?” he said. “Come on, the stairs are fine.”

“I’m not so sure about this,” Lili replied, eyeing the stairway with suspicion.

“It’s not like there’s anywhere else to go. Besides, maybe we’ll find something.”

Lili remained silent for a moment, then stepped down after him. She followed Dart closely as they descended the stairwell.

Although the steps seemed to threaten to give way beneath them, with them crumbling and cracking slightly with each step, they remained steadfast. The clouds grew thicker and thicker as they descended, and the light grew ever dimmer, although for whatever reason Dart could still see just fine.

Dart glanced nervously at the void surrounding them. He couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched, and every so often, he could hear a soft voice calling out to him. He spared a glance at Lili, whom looked none too thrilled about the transpiring events. Had he known better, he’d say she was more nervous about it than him.

Something about all of this struck him as odd for some reason, and it was a feeling that was nearly impossible to push away. Nonetheless, Dart kept it in the back of his mind. He had more important things to worry about now.

At the bottom of the stairwell was a large hole, where some of the thick clouds seemed to emanate from. It seemed to be a tear in the fabric of space more than anything, and it was difficult to see what was inside. Yet the longer Dart stared at it, the more compelled he felt to enter and see what was inside. The voices seemed more faint down here than they were in the rest of the abyss, although if he listened closely, their volume had been replaced by desperateness. Something was wrong,  _very_  wrong…but there was nowhere else to go. He had to go in there, he had to see what was causing this. They didn’t have any other options.

“What do you think is in there, Lili?”

Lili backed away. “Don’t know, don’t care. Let’s find another route.”

“There  _isn’t_  another route,” Dart pointed out. “Let’s just hop in and see what’s in there.”

“But if we jump in,” Lili pointed out, “Then there’ll be no way back up.”

Dart shook his head. “Well, yeah, I know. But do you see anywhere else we’ve got to go?”

“Maybe there’s another route near the GPC!” Lili supplied anxiously.

“There’s nothing outside the GPC anymore,” Dart said, “And the only other place is this stairwell.”

Lili eyed the hole, looking none too thrilled with the idea. “Okay, fine. Let’s just jump in and get it overwith.”

Dart nodded, casting the dark hole one last glance. He held his breath, closed his eyes, and jumped in, Lili following close behind.

There was a rush of darkness, and then his feet met a solid floor. He winced, absorbing the landing as best as he could. There was a quiet hum to greet him upon arrival, but it quickly died. When Dart opened his eyes, he was greeted with nothing but a featureless black void.

Just as he would have called out to Lili, whatever ground he stood on trembled and gave way. He heard Lili scream nearby, and both of them fell further into the darkness.


	8. Deception

It was worse than she thought. The entrance to Raz’s mind had been reduced to a fogless void, and the entry caravan was smashed to bits. The only thing that remained the same was the Psi-Popper Generator sitting outside, humming is usual tune to himself. Lili wasn’t sure whether to pity the creature or be annoyed; it’d probably seen enough minds become warped over time that it didn’t even phase him anymore. At least it kept him focused on what mattered rather than letting emotions get in the way of his job.

And luckily for Lili, that little worm was exactly who she needed right now.

The psi-popper generator, affectionately nicknamed “Oatmeal" by most of the cadets, was no stranger to Lili, nor was she a stranger to him. He chirped happily upon seeing her, and she gave him a thoughtful pat on the head in return.

"Good to see some things here don’t change," She remarked. “So, Oatmeal, have you seen Raz around here?"

Oatmeal tilted his head and buzzed. Lili felt her stomach twist itself into an anxious knot. This was bad.  _Very_  bad. “Are you sure? This is his mind, he should be here somewhere…"

Lili tried again and again to inquire Razputin’s last location, but Oatmeal gave no clear replies. Perhaps he hadn’t seen Raz lately. Lili didn’t want to think of this as a possibility, but there was nothing she had to go by. She rarely ever visited Raz’s mind, less on account of trust and more on account of Raz’s tough mental defenses.

With all other options exhausted, Lili found herself considering her last resort. She sighed, anxious, and knelt down. “Oatmeal, I know you don’t like doing this, but…I need you to send me somewhere."

Oatmeal tilted his head.

"To be specific: somewhere I haven’t been before. Somewhere with no return point, either."

Predictibly, the worm gave a strong protest. The only way she’d return from a place with no return point was if she left the astral plane altogether. Even then it was dangerous, not to mention usually against the rules, so to speak. Oatmeal buzzed loudly, shaking his head and looking away.

"Listen," Lili said calmly. “I know you’re only supposed to send me to parts of the astral plane I’ve been to before, but this is an honest-to-goodness psychic emergency. Raz could be in a lot of trouble, and I need to go find him before things get too bad out in the real world. Do you think you can bend the rules for me, just this one time?  _Please_?"

Oatmeal hesitated, staring at the ground and mulling over Lili’s words. After a moment, he gave a buzz-esque sigh, and nodded, quickly following it up with a few more irritating chirps, as though to say, “Okay, but just this once!"

Lili sighed in relief. “Thanks! I knew I could count on you! Now, here’s what I need you to do…"

 

* * *

 

Dart hit the ground with a solid thump and didn’t move for a few seconds. He could hear Lili nearby, although it was too dark to see anything. The chamber he stood in felt very familiar somehow, which was odd since he knew he’d never been in here before, let alone the fact that he was somehow recognizing something he couldn’t even see.

There was a soft tap on the floor as Lili landed nearby, somehow not falling quite as hard as him. It was difficult to make her out, but he could see her well enough to make out her signature eyeroll. “Don’t you know how to levitate?"

"Not really," Dart replied. “I’m not the psychic one, remember? That’s you."

"Oh. Right…"

"Can you see anything?"

Lili sighed. “No, Dart. It’s pitch black in here. You went and got us stuck in a dark cave with no light and no idea where we are, not to mention no way back."

"Is this even a cave, though?" Dart said. “I mean, that whole void back there… That shouldn’t even exist. What do you think the rest of the camp looks like to the rest of the world now, anyway? Is it just some big crater in the ground?"

"Why’re you asking me?" Lili grumbled. “If anyone would know the answers, it’d be Sasha. But he’s not here right now."

Dart stared downward, wincing. He certainly hadn’t thought this entirely through, had he? What if he never made it back home? Not that he even remembered his family anymore. Now he was struggling to conjure up an image of his own bedroom.

Maybe this Raz kid would know what was going on. Everyone sure seemed to be making a big fuss about him. At least they were closer to him now, assuming he was still around. Maybe he was even in this dark cave. If only there was some way to see where they were. Like a torch or his flashlight or his phone or some psychic power or…

…glowing crystals?

Sure enough, not far from Dart was a small crystal growing from the floor. His eyes widened excitedly. “Do you see that?!" He said, pointing at the gem.

"I see it," Lili said, oddly quiet and even more nervous than before.

More crystals around them lit up, illuminating the area bit by bit. The chamber before them resembled something akin to a small cave. It was, for the most part, featureless, although there were several cracks in the ground. Below them. Dart could hear the vague sound of water flowing. He looked around, but there didn’t seem to be any exits other than the hole they’d just jumped through. He sighed. “There’s nothing here after all. It’s just a dead end."

"A dead end with no way out," Lili added.

"So…we’re trapped here?"

Before Lili could reply, a bolt of dark violet energy slammed into her, sending her skidding across the stone ground. Dart raced after her, immediately kneeling at her side and helping her up. “Are you okay?!"

Lili ignored Dart, in favor of stared in shock at the source of the shot. “You?! You’re not supposed to be here!"

"You’re the one that’s not supposed to be here!" Lili’s voice growled from the other side of the room. “What do you think you’re doing, impersonating me AND messing around in places you don’t belong?! The Psychonauts are gonna do a lot worse than lock you up when they find out about this!"

Dart gawked. Standing on the other side of the room, looking angry and poised to strike again, was none other than Lili Zanotto. “What the…?" he stammered. “Two Lilis?"

"No," the new Lili said. “There’s only one of me. The Lili next to you is a fraud!"

"Don’t listen to her, Dart! She’s lying!"

"No! I’m the real one! The one you’re with is fake!"

"What’s going on?!" Dart cried. “How can there be two of you?!"

"Maybe the other one is just an illusion," Lili said, grabbing Dart’s arm. “Come on, Dart!"

What happened next was a blur. The other Lili dashed forward on a violet levitation orb, leapt into the air, and side-kicked the first Lili in the side, causing her to release her hold on Dart and go flying. Almost as fast, a giant, ethereal hand appeared from nowhere, grabbing Lili and flinging her across the room, slamming her into a wall before grabbing her again and holding her upside-down.

Dart braced himself for the image of a battered, beaten-up Lili, but he didn’t get one. There was a brief image of a dark, twisted figure before it flickered back into his friend’s likeness.

The Lili standing strong on the ground sneered. “Looks like you can’t exactly replicate any version of me with a bunch of bruises, can you? Some imposter you are."

Dart’s jaw dropped. The Lili that had led him this far shifted from irritated to smug and mildly impressed, and clapped her hands. “Very good, Miss Zanotto. I didn’t expect you to find us so quickly."

"You made a big mistake when you messed with my boyfriend," Lili snarled. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let him go before I pummel you again."

"I’m afraid I can’t do that," the imposter replied, her voice eerily calm. “I’m not quite done with him yet."

"Not done?" Dart echoed. “What’s going on here?"

Lili’s imposter grinned, her eyes shifting from their usual calming hazel hue to a malevolent yellow. “You know, I was wondering how long it would take for you to catch on, Lili. I really have to commend you for coming this far. Unfortunately, I’m afraid you’re too late. Razputin is no more. There is only D’artagnan."

Lili and Dart exchanged horrified glances, and Dart felt his mind reel in panic and confusion. No more Razputin? Only him? “Wha—?!" 

"What are you talking about?" Lili demanded.

The imposter laughed. “Isn’t it obvious? There’s no way to get Razputin out of the way unless I attack his mind from within. I can’t kill him; the boy’s too quick. I can’t trick him because he’s too clever. And his mental defenses are nearly impossible to get past the normal way. But I found an opening. It took me quite a lot of effort and sacrifice to get here…" The imposter looked at her arm, which had melted out of its disguise and returned to its gangly black state. "…but I’m sure it will all be worth it once I’ve broken him."

"Broken him?" Dart echoed, his stomach sinking in dread.

"And I would have been done by now," the imposter continued, “Had it not been for his persistence and your interference."

"Why?" Lili said. “What are you after Raz for?!"

"Because he’s always in my way!" The fake Lili barked. “The only way I can truly defeat him is to destroy his identity and leave him a blubbering mess, just like Ford! With the only Psychonaut that knew about my plans completely discounted and out of the way, I could proceed without hindrance. The boy put up quite a fight, what with his little hints and vague messages he left sitting around. I thought I had all of them destroyed, but it seems a few of them managed to slip through my fingers…"

Dart’s eyes widened, and his thoughts reeled. “The graffiti and the text messages…" he whispered… “Those were more than just warnings, weren’t they?"

"And your friends and your precious camp and the little visions of the past." The imposter sneered, clearly annoyed. “Defenses, all of them. I tried to implant some false memories to throw you off, but now even those are crumbling away."

Lili grinned. “Anything you did to try and corrupt Raz’s mind is being eaten up, too?" She said. “Looks like you can’t get past his defenses, after all."

The room shifted and cracked, and the fake Lili grinned. “Actually, no…this works out _perfectly_. It’s  _better_  than I would have hoped."

The room shifted, expanding into a cavernous chamber filled with shreds of blood-stained cloth, sourceless screams for help echoing off the walls, too quiet to make out but loud enough to claw at Dart’s mind. Water rose from the cracks in the ground, swirling around the entire chamber like a giant whirlpool.

"No identity at all. You’d make the perfect puppet, but I have a  _better_  plan."

The water roared, and the screams blurred into the torrent, creating a loud wail of terror.

"I will shatter your identity. I will leave you nothing more than a withered husk, an empty shell with no mind and no hope. I’ll leave you as a distraction and source of endless despair for those you love. And that’s just the beginning."

The imposter shifted, her arms growing into gangly black claws, horns protruding from her head, eyes emanating a deadly yellow glow. Her form twisted into a vile, demonic form, the water curling around it and forming a twisted body that could only be described as a nightmare come to life. Lili backed away from the creature, having long since dropped it when the transformation began, and gasped silently in fear.

"When I’m done with Razputin," the creature continued, “I’ll move on to every single mind connected with him. I can spread like a virus and infect their minds. Corrupt them all, take them all down. Then nothing will stand in my way."

"Not if I can help it!" Dart cried. He had no idea where his confidence came from, but he clung to it with everything he had. This confidence he was feeling might be the only weapon he’d have against such a beast.

Lili nodded. “You’ll have to go through me, too!"

"Your courage is meaningless against the power I have now!" The nightmare hissed. “Nothing will stop your demise! One way or another, this mind will die, _and you will die with it!"_

The nightmare doubled in size, towering over them. Its eyes narrowed in hunger, and its claws reared back, prepared to strike.

Dart was determined to take down this creature, but he couldn’t help but be afraid. He was defenseless. Anything that Razputin might have had, he didn’t. No psychic powers. No memories. No defense of any kind to call upon. There was only fear.


End file.
